PITTSBURGH and BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey is in denial after losing his race for a fourth term to Republican Senator-elect Dave McCormick, and clinging to a long-shot gamble that that outstanding ballots from Philadelphia can make up the roughly 36,000-votes he needs to win.
The Casey team is banking on an increasingly narrow strategy of relying on outstanding provisional and military ballots from the City of Brotherly Love. That plan prompted McCormick’s campaign to sue the Philadelphia County Board of Elections to ensure that at least one Republican observes the vote-counting process and that their campaign can challenge provisional ballots in bulk, rather than individually.
Political insiders like Dennis Roddy, a former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist, say Casey’s strategy is unlikely to close the gap, as provisional ballots in the city are often challenged with good reason.
“A lot of those provisional ballots are people who are not registered to vote, perhaps not even eligible to vote. This is a long-standing Philadelphia tradition,” Roddy told The Post, recalling how Nikita Kruschev, Richard Nixon, Andy Warhol and Clark Kent were found to be registered voters in the city by the Pennsylvania Crime Commission in 1977.
“We call it goddamn nonsense, and that’s what this [is],” Roddy added. “This is about making sure that the people voting are actually people that are eligible to vote.”
Mark Davin Harris, a political consultant who works with the McCormick campaign, shut down questions about the lawsuit process on Friday morning — calling them “nonsense” — and slammed the Casey campaign for pretending there’s a path forward on X/Twitter.
“Provisionals all across the state that will roughly split between the candidates 50-50. There’s only 20k in Philly, that’s it,” Harris wrote, noting McCormick’s substantial lead and outstanding Election Day ballots from deep-red Cambria County.
Emails from Casey’s fundraising channels sent Friday morning — nearly 18 hours after the Associated Press called the race for McCormick — asserted the “race is not over” and included links for money donations, as if the senator is still campaigning for votes.
Notably, Casey called on Donald Trump to concede the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. He argued then that “the president should do what every president who’s been defeated has done in the past.”
The McCormick campaign took a victory lap hours before AP called the race in his favor Thursday afternoon. Other outlets, such as NBC and The Hill’s Decision Desk, have not yet called the race, waiting for the provisional ballots to be counted despite Casey’s near-impossible math.
At a victory press conference in Pittsburgh on Friday morning, McCormick thanked voters for electing him and promised to work across the aisle with new Pennsylvania Senate colleague John Fetterman and Governor Josh Shapiro — both Democrats — to represent all of the Keystone State.
McCormick has shown some empathy towards Casey as he continues to fight for his seat, despite the pair trading brutal barbs throughout the campaign.
“While we need to move forward with the people’s business, I also recognize what it’s like to lose a close election,” McCormick said with a chuckle, referring to his 940-vote loss to Mehmet Oz in the 2022 Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary — a race that was not called for more than two weeks.
The Senator-elect — who noted he spoke to President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday — even thanked Casey as “a senator who served Pennsylvania with honor” and empathized with his reluctance to give up so easily.
McCormick currently leads by more than 36,000 votes, but remains within the 0.5% margin that triggers an automatic recount in Pennsylvania.
